When where we've been intersects with where we're going

Thirty Lessons From a Special Needs Parent

A few events today had me thinking about the following post. I had originally posted this on my personal Facebook page and I thought I would share it here. I haven’t been a special needs parent for very long but it has certainly changed me in a short period of time.

1: Patience is needed and taught on a daily basis.

2: “Slow to anger” is an important saying that does wonders when practiced.

3: Someone should never be judged based on their disease and/or disability.

4: Never judge someone if you are not coping with their problems.

5: Treat others the way you want to be treated.

6: Whispers, stares, and gossiping about a situation that can’t be helped, hurts.

7: Difficulty teaches compassion.

8: We want to help but are often hindered by our circumstances.

9: Guilt is a part of every day life.

10: Depression is real and is felt a lot more often than we want to admit.

11: Help is not requested as often as it’s needed. It seems important for others to think we aren’t falling apart.

12: We stay at home and shy away from gatherings if we know it will cause stress all around.

13: Choosing a baby-sitter is a big deal, thus we don’t go away as often as we would like.

14: We appreciate the opinions of others but rarely take advice from those who spend very little time with our child.

15: We need and love support, support, support.

16: We rarely want sympathy. We just want someone to talk to. It helps us unload some of our burden.

17: We want to know about your family and notice when you stop reaching out to ours. We realize our life seems depressing, but it is ours.

18: Our hearts break a little when we see others doing things we know we may never be able to do.

19: Negative people and opinions hurt, we are doing the best we can.

20: Love reaches deeper than we ever expected.

21: What seems like a burden to others, is a blessing to us.

22: We are sad when others refuse to see the joy our children bring to our lives.

23: We have seen more compassion and love from others through our difficulty than we ever expected and it’s humbling.

24: Celebrate the little things.

25: Choose the battles that really count.

26: We worry about losing our spouse profoundly more than other people. We know how difficult it would be to raise our children alone.

27: We no longer measure great achievements by the world’s standards.

28: Some of the best friendships we have made are forged through a common bond.

29: With each struggle we become stronger.

30: Our journey has helped us love the differences we see in others.

If given the choice, we would not choose a disease or disability for ourselves or for our children but we have been blessed by the difficulty it has brought us. We know what it means to make every day count and we understand why each day must be appreciated.

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